Rich Mozingo is general manager of the Chattanooga Lookouts baseball club.Staff File PhotoBo Henley, left, and John Plumlee paint the Lookouts logo behind home plate.In the world of minor league baseball, clubs are worried more about player development than wins and losses. Too, the minor leagues also put a priority on logos and team names that resonate.
Here are some of the outlandish names in minor league baseball:
* Albuquerque Isotopes. Named after a fictional team in the Fox TV cartoon "The Simpsons."
* Omaha Storm Chasers. Picked from fan suggestions in 2011. The Storm Chasers topped the Isotopes for their first win with the new name.
* Akron RubberDucks. Renamed in 2013, the RubberDucks - an homage to the tire industry in Akron - was picked over a final four of Rubber Ducks, Gum Dippers, Tire Jacks and Vulcans.
* Montgomery Biscuits. A league foe of the Lookouts, the Biscuits sell actual biscuits at their home ball park. They have sold more than 400,000 heading into this season, their 14th in existence.
* Lehigh Valley IronPigs. Yes, the logo on the hat looks like bacon.
* Las Vegas 51s. Named for the infamous "Area 51" in Nevada where alleged alien landings happened.
If someone asked you how many professional baseball teams you could name, would it be more than 10?
More than 20, maybe?
Sure, the Dodgers and Yankees and Braves and Reds roll off the tongue like the first verse of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame."
But there are hundreds of professional baseball teams. Each of the 30 Major League Baseball franchises have multiple minor league affiliates, and that means the names and the logos are vast.
In recent years, the names and insignias have changed as often as some teams swap managers.
The Chattanooga Lookouts, the AA affiliate of the big-league Minnesota Twins, however, have had the same, recognizable logo since the early 1990s.
"I guess you could call it Eye-conic," Lookouts president Rich Mozingo says with a chuckle about the renown big eyes. "I know we ship merchandise from coast to coast every year."
The Lookouts' logo was actually picked from several nominations all the way back in 1991, according to Mozingo, who came to work for the franchise in 1993 before returning to the club in 2011.
In 1991, Matt Riley, an assistant general manager, drove the change, and since then, the logo has survived multiple affiliate changes - from the Mariners to the Reds to the Dodgers to the current relationship to the Twins - three ownership groups and two home stadiums.
And in an era where catchy and outlandish names and hat logos have become common, Chattanooga's longstanding logo stands out even more.
"There are a few of them," Mozingo says of league teams with names and logos that have been around longer than the Lookouts' eyes. "There are the Toledo Mud Hens and the Durham Bulls. The Carolina Mudcats have been around a while too.
"But you know, now that you think about it, there aren't that many."
Mozingo said the Bulls are universally considered the most popular minor league team in large part because of the 1988 movie "Bull Durham" that starred Kevin Costner and Susan Sarandon.
But the Lookouts are consistently among the most recognized logos around the game. In 2014, milb.com - the official site of minor league baseball - hosted a contest for the best minor league hat.
The Bulls (fifth), the Mudcats (seventh), the Mud Hens (13th) and the Lookouts, who finished 25th in the voting, all placed in the top quarter of the final voting.
Of course, the longstanding logos were no match for some of the new kids on the bill as the top three were the Isotopes, the Richmond Flying Squirrels and the El Paso Chihuahuas.
Those may be new and catchy, but for Mozingo, the eyes will always have it.
"There are a lot of crazy names out there for sure," says Mozingo, who with the rest of his staff are getting ready for the April 6 home opener against the Mobile Bay Bears at 6:15 p.m. with fireworks to follow. "But newer does not mean better."